Daily News Advocates, and (New York) City Board of Elections Mulls Lever Machines for Upcoming Vote

[Wilms]

City Board of Elections Mulls Lever Machines for Upcoming Vote
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
WNYC

By Brigid Bergin : Reporter, WNYC News

The New York City Board of Elections isn't ruling out bringing back the old lever voting machines (PDF) if the dates for the upcoming primary and runoff elections remain unchanged. It's just one of several options to account for a snafu with the new electronic voting machines.

The Board has said repeatedly that it can't run a primary election on September 10 and then turn around and hold a run-off two weeks later using the electronic machines because of all the time it takes to tally the votes, determine the top candidates, print ballots and test the machines.

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http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/feb/19/nyc-board-elections-contemplates-lever-machines-again/


Pull the levers of power
Albany must bring back the old voting machines for the 2013 mayoral election

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Let’s get it done right. Let’s take a break from electronic ballot scanners. Let’s press the old, tried-and-true mechanical voting machines back into service.

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All of this is strictly routine — except that the vote scanners cannot process three elections in the span of eight weeks, let alone two contests in two weeks.

Programing, testing and certifying the 3,643 machines to be used on Election Day takes more than a week. Hapless as it is, the Board of Elections should be able to get the scanners ready for the Sept. 10 primary.

But then will come the task of counting votes. The scanners can spit out instant results, but those are acceptable only when candidates are separated by wide margins. Close races require a hand count of paper ballots that can take weeks.

Then comes the work of recalibrating the machines for the next election.

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Let’s get real. The old lever machines are sitting in a Brooklyn warehouse, protected from dust by plastic covers. Wheel them out and run the elections just the way the city did for decades.

Why did New York switch to scanners in the first place?

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http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/pull-levers-power-article-1.1265732